Sweet Girl Turns Siete This Summer

My sweet wonderful sidekick turned 7 this summer and for some reason I didn't do a post to celebrate it. Summer is always so hectic and I'm not the most efficient or consistent blogger so this is to make sure I've documented this little miracle turning SEVEN!


We did celebrate Faith's 7th Birthday but it fell on the last day of school which was NUTS to begin with and we couldn't get the weather to cooperate with our waterpark or drive-in plans so we ended up taking Faith and her friends, Maddie, Meg, Hayden & Ally to our new found Mexican restaraunt in Albion and then to the movie "Kung Fu Panda" at the quaint little Bohm Theatre on the brick streets of Albion. We gave away "Summer Survival" gift bags to the girls with everything from a Barbie hat to toys for the pool.

It is impossible to adequately describe the essence of Faith in words. She has to be experienced one-on-one to understand the depth of her character and the purity of her sweet little heart. I cannot talk about her this way without bawling so I'm going to quickly summarize some of those things which scratch the surface to describe the second mother who lives in our house.

Faith is tender, thoughtful, funny in her own unique way, smart- a math whiz, her quiet nature hides the silly side and we have to work on keeping her worries from taking over control. A few things came from mama- she is creative and loves for us to do crafts or paint together, she is also a pack-rat (something mama unfortunately passed on in the DNA) and if we can't find something that happens to be small, shiny or sparkly around the house, we know to bring out Faith's purse collection and unload them in search of the item she squirreled away. Siete is 7 in Spanish and she LOVES her Mexican food. She likes things spicy, her favorite thing in the universe is "Chips & Salseee" and restaraunt of choice is Los Tres Amigos.

Faith is turning out to be our little athlete. She LOVES basketball and begged us to sign her up for soccer this fall. Our shy baby is the one on the sports field while her outgoing brother would rather watch from the tallest tree. Baby Grace is most likely to be the one running straight across all of the soccer fields holding something in her hand she wasn't supposed to touch and smiling with glee that one of us is running behind her in hot pursuit. What a joy to discover what makes each of them tick. Every mama thinks their babies are the most beautiful in all the land but this little girl was given an extra dose inside and out.

Your birthday was on the last day of school and it's funny that Mama is finally getting around to talking about it on the LAST DAY of summer vacation- tomorrow you'll be a 2nd Grader! Yikes!

Mama loves you Faith and I look forward to growing in our friendship and watching you unfold into the beautiful woman that the Lord created you to be.

I'm Brian Fellow

One of my favorite SNL characters.

Summer Raines 08

I don't know how summer goes so quickly while winter in Michigan seems to drag on and on and on...but I just had to break the news to the kids that the reason school supplies are on display is because it's coming soon. I LOVE Target as anyone who knows me knows. I ADORE their gian school supply signs hanging all over the store. It just makes me happy!

Sam, on the other hand, is in some deep state of denial and tells me to be quiet and not talk to me about school supplies and don't walk through that section. Similar to when he tells me not to walk across the living room because the carpet is hot lava. At this point the halls of Bean Elementary seem like miles of hot lava to him. Faith is like me and is absolutely fascinated by school supplies and the beautiful displays in the stores. She wants it all!

I LOVE FALL and everything it has to offer- school supplies, new school clothes, changing colors on the trees, sweatshirts and jeans, bonfires, orchards with cider and donuts... I'm getting ahead of myself. I need to reflect on the fun we have had this summer and it's not over yet so I need to finish enjoying what we have left.

We have had fun at the park, swimming in Mimi's pool, playing mini golf at "Papa Andy's" course, we had fun with our friend and virtual family member Isaiah and got a new cousin to love-baby Mira Raines was born in June to Matt & Bekah. We had fun when the Sheridan's from Arizona came home and we all played at the lake together. Sam is jealous of Great Grandma Sue's Wii games- something I thought I'd never hear- a kid jealous of his Great Grandma's video game system!

It worked out to be at Family Camp using the Asbury's trailer which was a DELUX way to camp!

Faith Friends and Family- it doesn't get much better than that! Sitting at the lake, riding bikes, the striped tabernacle, campfires, watching tween-ager drama unfold, mosquitos, Bible School, Freddy's Freeze... all a part of the magic of Family Camp.

We just got back from a fun trip to Grandpa Raines' house in Valparaiso IN and took the train into Chicago. We went to the American Girl store for Faith and dropped Bitty Baby off to go to the hospital to get her arm re-attached. Faith was so sad to let her go but we knew it would help her. Sam wanted to go to the Lego store and it was pretty cool. The Hello Kitty store was the stop for me. Drew drank his body weight in Starbucks and cruised a Borders Books. We ate at Gino's East our favorite deep dish pizza- Grace was a nightmare in there but she was great overall for being 1 1/2 and tethered to a stroller or the train seat all day.

The Jackson County Fair found the Sheridan clan gathering together for our annual trek through the exhibit hall (I haven't entered in the last 2 years but have promised to do it again next year with Aunt Ann and Grandma Sue), the 4-H barns, the fried food walk of fame, and finally to the over-priced-say-a-prayer-that-it-doesn't-fall-apart rides where Kimmy, Aunt Susie, Miss and I always do the scrambler. We make fools out of ourselves by laughing and screaming so hard that we almost wet our pants. The ride guy Rulan from South Africa flirted a bit with our group and gave us a longer ride than normal and a few smacks on the side of our carts when we were hurling towards him. That made us laugh even harder. Good times. To the little chick in barn #1- Grace is sorry for petting you too hard and trying to pick you up by your head.

VBS just wrapped up at church and the Sheridan Golf Scramble is this weekend-- all signs that summer is winding down.

Sorry Sam. Them's the facts.

Faith, high five for new folders & pencil boxes, even stupid stuff we don't need but love like the rubber holders for pencils and glitter glue for the spontaneous craft.

Only mom will understand this but it's an appropriate send off--- "Farwoo Summah"